1 Samuel 2:8

2:8 He lifts the weak ¹  from the dust;

he raises ²  the poor from the ash heap

to seat them with princes

and to bestow on them an honored position. ³ 

The foundations of the earth belong to the Lord,

and he has placed the world on them.

Psalms 75:3

75:3 When the earth and all its inhabitants dissolve in fear, ⁴ 

I make its pillars secure.” ⁵  (Selah)

John 5:17-18

5:17 So he ⁶  told ⁷  them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” ⁸  5:18 For this reason the Jewish leaders ⁹  were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

Acts 17:28

17:28 For in him we live and move about ¹⁰  and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ¹¹ 

Hebrews 1:3

1:3 The Son is ¹²  the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, ¹³  and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Or “lowly”; Heb “insignificant.”

² tn The imperfect verbal form, which is parallel to the participle in the preceding line, is best understood here as indicating what typically happens.

³ tn Heb “a seat of honor.”

⁴ tn Heb “melt.”

⁵ tn The statement is understood in a generalizing sense; God typically prevents the world from being overrun by chaos. One could take this as referring to an anticipated event, “I will make its pillars secure.”

⁶ tc ‡ Most witnesses (Ì⁶⁶ A D L Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï latt co) have ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsou", “Jesus”) here, while generally better witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א B W {0141} 892 1241 pbo) lack the name. Although it is possible that Alexandrian scribes deleted the name due to proclivities to prune, this is not as likely as other witnesses adding it for clarification, especially since multiple strands of the Alexandrian text are represented in the shorter reading. NA²⁷ places the word in brackets, indicating some doubts as to authenticity.

⁷ tn Grk “answered.”

⁸ sn “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” What is the significance of Jesus’ claim? A preliminary understanding can be obtained from John 5:18, noting the Jewish authorities’ response and the author’s comment. They sought to kill Jesus, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God. This must be seen in the context of the relation of God to the Sabbath rest. In the commandment (Exod 20:11) it is explained that “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth…and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Philo, based on the LXX translation of Exod 20:11, denied outright that God had ever ceased his creative activity. And when Rabban Gamaliel II, R. Joshua, R. Eleazar ben Azariah, and R. Akiba were in Rome, ca. a.d. 95, they gave as a rebuttal to sectarian arguments evidence that God might do as he willed in the world without breaking the Sabbath because the entire world was his private residence. So even the rabbis realized that God did not really cease to work on the Sabbath: Divine providence remained active on the Sabbath, otherwise, all nature and life would cease to exist. As regards men, divine activity was visible in two ways: Men were born and men died on the Sabbath. Since only God could give life and only God could deal with the fate of the dead in judgment, this meant God was active on the Sabbath. This seems to be the background for Jesus’ words in 5:17. He justified his work of healing on the Sabbath by reminding the Jewish authorities that they admitted God worked on the Sabbath. This explains the violence of the reaction. The Sabbath privilege was peculiar to God, and no one was equal to God. In claiming the right to work even as his Father worked, Jesus was claiming a divine prerogative. He was literally making himself equal to God, as 5:18 goes on to state explicitly for the benefit of the reader who might not have made the connection.

⁹ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” See the note on the phrase “Jewish leaders” in v. 10.

¹⁰ tn According to L&N 15.1, “A strictly literal translation of κινέω in Ac 17:28 might imply merely moving from one place to another. The meaning, however, is generalized movement and activity; therefore, it may be possible to translate κινούμεθα as ‘we come and go’ or ‘we move about’’ or even ‘we do what we do.’”

¹¹ sn This quotation is from Aratus (ca. 310-245 b.c.), Phaenomena 5. Paul asserted a general relationship and accountability to God for all humanity.

¹² tn Grk “who being…and sustaining.” Heb 1:1-4 form one skillfully composed sentence in Greek, but it must be broken into shorter segments to correspond to contemporary English usage, which does not allow for sentences of this length and complexity.

¹³ tn Grk “by the word of his power.”

¹⁴ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1, quoted often in Hebrews.